Four things to consider when starting a business

Starting your own business is an exciting process that will take you on a journey. There are many things to consider, how many staff members do you require? Are you going to need a website? What marketing requirements do you have? What IT systems will you need? There are many questions that you will need to find the answer to before launching. 

We would advise putting an excel spreadsheet together, listing everything that you require. This way you can tick it off as and when you think you have achieved it. Try to speak to any friends that you have who run their own businesses. As well as your friends, see if any local businesses can give you some tips. 

Below we have put together four things to consider when starting a business. 

Setting up your IT infrastructure 

No matter your business, you will require some sort of IT setup, whether that be laptops, phone systems, internet, payment machines etc. We rely heavily on technology, which is why it’s so important to invest and have it correctly set up before launching. When researching your IT setup, make sure you take into account cybersecurity experts. With cyber-attacks becoming more frequent, it has never been so important to have a cyber set up to help you in case something happens. The last thing you want is for your system to go down and you are not able to fix it. 

What are your marketing requirements? 

Do you need a website? Who is going to create your logo? Do you require brochures, flyers, and leaflets? Who is going to run your social media channels? Send out email campaigns? Run your ad campaigns and build up your online presence? The list can keep on going. All of these things are important questions to answer and will unfortunately cost, for this reason, it’s important you set a budget. When starting any business, having a budget set aside is important as things will often cost more than you would have initially thought. As mentioned above, use a spreadsheet as this can help you analyze costs and stick to your budget set. 

Employing Staff 

Depending on your business will depend on whether you require staff members. If you are online, you may be able to get away with using freelancers, and then employ staff once you have grown a little. If you run a shop, employees may be required instantly. Before hiring, set out a salary that you want to stick to, be clever in the way that you advertise the jobs available and make sure you don’t over-employ. Remember staff member’s costs and will increase your overheads. 

The systems you will need 

This is something many people forget to research and don’t realize just how many systems they require. When starting a business you will need an accounts package, email licenses, hosting for your website, a CRM system, payment system, a multimedia suite like Microsoft or Google docs – the list goes on. These are all monthly subscriptions that you need to be aware of as the more you require the greater your expenses will be.